My husband and I stayed at the Bethesda Doubletree this past Friday and Saturday night. We were celebrating my husband’s birthday, and we just wanted to get away. Overall, the hotel was a good place to get the head down, but there is much room for improvement here. The positives first: The room was clean and a good size. Bed and pillows were comfortable. We paid for an upgraded room on the 12th floor so we had a nice view of Bethesda, and there was no street noise.
As for the negatives, there just seemed to be many little things that went wrong. We arrived after 11 pm on Friday, and the front desk clerk was not friendly – at all. In fact, we felt like we had interrupted something. We were exhausted and went right to bed, but my husband could not sleep due to the noise from the heater/AC. It did not bother me. When we awoke on Saturday morning, I wanted to check my email, but could not get on the “free” wifi network. I called the front desk for help and was told to call the help desk. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with the help desk only to be told the problem was with the wifi in my part of the hotel. Just a thought, but wouldn’t it have been a great customer service gesture if the front desk had checked the wifi network for me before wasting my time asking me to call the help desk? Once the wifi network was fixed, I logged on to check my email and discovered wifi is only free for slow internet access that allows you to check email and not much else. If you need to stream video or do any heavy browsing, you will need to pay $10 a day. The only reason we chose the Doubletree over the Hyatt (which is located at the Bethesda metro) was the free wifi. The Doubletree is about a 10-minute walk from the Bethesda metro, and about 20 minutes from the entertainment district.
We enjoyed the nice Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries, but our cleaner must have too – because when she cleaned our room Saturday morning, she took all our slightly used toiletries and did not replace them. We were left with a bar of soap. I did not notice the toiletries were missing until I was in the shower Sunday morning with wet hair and no shampoo! The room also has a little Wolfgang Puck coffee maker. Our cleaner restocked with decaf coffee and did not give us any creamer. The hotel did not seem particularly crowded, so I can’t believe she had run out of toiletries, coffee AND creamer? Maybe the cleaner was having a bad day. I was also concerned with the security of the hotel. Several times we entered from the street and walked to the elevator without passing a staff member (the front desk was frequently unmanned). No keycard access is required for the elevator, so the floors are easily accessible to the public. We had breakfast buffet at the Doubletree before leaving, and it was not worth the price. There is an Original Pancake House near the hotel, which is much better and cheaper.

Very large king sized rooms. Rooms very clean. Bathroom a bit small but well stocked. So much extra wasted space they could have put a microwave and small refrigerator in the room. Coffee available in room. Starbucks in the lobby. Lounge very expensive. $10.00 drinks for average liquor. Parking garage $10.00 per day. Free lot on weekends across the street behind a gas station . Free wifi for slower speeds and $10.00 for faster speeds.

I was impressed at the friendliness of all staff especially the front desk personnel. When you check in you get a warm cookie. The rooms are above average and the bathroom are remodeled and very clean. They have new TV's. The heating system is a bit loud and the sound-proofing could be better. This hotel is easy access to I-270 and they offfer a shuttle to the metro, although it i9sn't a bad walk. The valet parking was only $10 per day on weekends. Comfortable beds and great towels. I liked this hotel.

After years of visiting NIH and staying at the Hyatt, the doubletree offered an interesting alternative. Closer to NIH but farther from metro. Rooms are unexceptional (I even upgraded to a "deluxe room"), but large flat screen TVs and nice gym. Quiet, good access to Bethesda restaurants by back door. I think I might stay here again instead of hyatt, but time will tell.